A PAINTED WOOD FIGURE OF A COURT LADY, WARRING STATES PERIOD TO WESTERN HAN DYNASTYChina, 475 BC to 8 AD. Exquisitely carved, the slender standing figure wearing a high-collared robe over an inner garment, gently falling over sloping shoulders into heavily gathered sleeves above clasped hands to the front and flaring over narrow legs exposing small shoes, the garments painted overall in black and red pigments with stylized scrolls and geometric patterns. The finely carved and delicately knife-cut face with almond-shaped eyes, the parted hair neatly incised, the details realistically rendered.Provenance: Bruno Cooper, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2010. Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above. A copy of the original invoice by Bruno Cooper, from 11 November 2010, dating the present lot to the Han dynasty, and stating a purchase price for a “couple of painted wooden statues in water”, one of them being the present lot, for EUR 12,000 or approx.EUR 18,500 (adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), apanies this lot. According to Paolo Bertuzzi’s son, the twin to the present lot is in the collection of Paolo Bertuzzi’s closest friend. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna, Italy. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashionpany with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother’s business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than 60 years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.Condition: Excellent condition,mensurate with age. Wear, losses, nicks, age cracks, signs of weathering and erosion. Permanently kept in a Perspex tank with distilled water.Dimensions: Height 56 cm (excl. the Perspex tank)The figure preserved inside a Perspex tank filled with distilled water. (2)The earliest recorded secular wood figures have been excavated in the Changsha area in 1936 at a site linked to the state of Chu. Wood figures appear to be replacements for earlier customs of sacrificing servants to serve the deceased in the afterlife, as noted by Hearn and Fong in The Secularization of Art: The State of Ch’u, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, No. 2, 1973/1974, fig. 37.Literatureparison:Compare a related lacquer-painted wood tomb figure, 59.7 cm high, dated c. 3rd century BC, illustrated by J.J. Lally & Co., Two Thousand Years of Chinese Sculpture, 17-29 March 2008, no. 2.pare a related lacquer-painted wood tomb figure, 56.5 cm, dated 3rd centur